China

A protest against a landfill site which is expanding into urban areas in Tianmen, Hubei province led to violence as protestors were attacked by Chengguang (City Management Officers).

Wei Wenhua, filming the incident from his car on his mobile phone was targeted and killed by the Chengguang during the incident.

Mr Wenhua was attacked on Monday in the village of Wanba, outside of Tianmen City in the central Hubei province. Villagers were protesting against the dumping of rubbish on a wasteland site by their homes by the city's refuse service, claiming it was polluting the air and local water supply.

R. Scalapino and G.T. Yu.

Berkeley: Center for Chinese Studies, 1961

Contents
Editor's Note
Preface
The Origins of Chinese Anarchism
Anarchism and the Nationalist Revolution
The Work-Study Movement
The Anarchist Conflict With Marxism
Editor's Footnote[i]

Editor’s Note

Radio Free Asia reported that the security guards set about the workers and in the ensuing clash at least one worker and one security guard died. The conflict lasted about two hours, during which time the workers vented their anger by attacking company offices and two nearby police vehicles they believed had been used to transport management's hired security guards to the mine.

Ba Jin:Chinese writer who made the journey from anarchism to Mao and back again

The Meaning of Tiananmen

"It's anarchy, but it's organized anarchy."
- Dan Rather, reporting from Tiananmen Square in late May/early June 1989

The secondary school pupil died last Thursday after being stabbed by another pupil. 10000 people took to the streets to protest after it was reported that the parents had been arrested after having complained about delays in calling for an ambulance.

Some 300-400 workers at the site, currently building a hydro-electric power station, went on strike last Friday in protest at the massive wage arrears. Some 200 hired thugs then attacked the workers. Lei Mingzhong, is reported to be in a coma and brain dead and acccording to doctors has no chance of recovery. Many other workers were injured in the clashes.

The government acted to move against the use of slave labour in Shanxi and Henan provinces, freeing 600 people, 10% of whom were children. However government action appears, at least in part, to be motivated by workers action. A blog set up by parents in Henan reports having freed 40 children from slave labour using direct action.

They confront the fact that state-capitalism, the state-management of production and society, the rule over society by the class of the state, the bureaucracy, is still almost universally confused with "communism" as Marx defined it, due in part to the conspiracy of silence and distortion which unites the capitalists of both "East" and "West".

Simon Leys is the pen-name of Pierre Ryckmans; he has written extensively on the history, culture and politics of China.

From; Chinese Shadows, Simon Leys; Penguin Books, London, 1978.

The horrendous safety record of chinese mines, as reported previously on libcom, results in around 5000 reported deaths a year. This April was particularly bloody with a a total of 80 workers reported killed or missing in accidents.

The plans involve placing Guixi under the jurisdiction of the neighbouring district, which may mean a lowering of benefits and state wages for Guixi residents. Protestors blocked two rail connections for around six hours, including the heavily traveled line that runs from Shanghai in the east, cutting through Jiangxi to the southwestern city of Kunming.

In a follow up to our story on Monday, we can report that the demonstrations were concerned with the doubling of the ticket prices over the Chinese New Year holiday in February.

The rioters were reported to be protesting against government corruption and rising transport costs. The unrest was eventually suppressed with scores of arrests and some injuries, none serious, on both sides.

It is perhaps difficult to overstate the sheer immensity of the transformation that is being wrought in China. In merely a few years, entire cities have been summoned into existence and vast industries have been brought into being - as China has emerged from being widely regarded as a peculiar autarchic rural backwater, which was geo-politically significant only for having the bomb and a large army, to being recognised as a major economic powerhouse on the world stage.

Up to 20,000 people, according to some reports, demonstrated over a number of days outside the four-star Nest Business Hotel following the death of a 16-year-old female hotel worker, who was raped and murdered on the premises. On the night of January 17, the protests reached a climax as people stormed the hotel and set it alight.

The park closed on Thursday when no workers showed up for work and around 100 picketed the entrance. On Friday around 70 police officers raided the park during a sit-in during which hundreds of employees began hanging protest signs around the park, however most of the workers left shortly after the police arrived.

Ba Jin
Aka Li Feigan, Pa Jin, born 25 November 1904 - Chengdu, Sichuan, died 17 October 2005 - China